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TWICE

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TWICE (Hangul: 트와이스) is a South KoreanGirl Group formed by JYP Entertainment in 2015. They debuted through the reality show Sixteen, where sixteen girls competed against each other to decide who would be the ones to debut in a long-planned project of the agency. Eventually, nine winners were chosen and became members of the group. Of the members, five of them are Korean (Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Jihyo, Dahyun and Chaeyoung), three are Japanese nationality (Momo, Sana, Mina) and one is Taiwanese (Tzuyu).

The group debuted a few months later with the EP "The Story Begins" and it was a massive success. The title track "Like Ooh-Ahh" broke records for K-pop debuts, and the girls landed numerous endorsements, claimed to be enough to maintain JYPE as a company for 10 years. Record-breaking trends continued with their second EP "Page Two", which also landed the group their first music show wins.

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Amidst comebacks, Taiwanese member, Tzuyu, was caught in a political proxy war between China and Taiwan which made international news. She got backlash for waiving Taiwan's flag in a Korean TV show note provided by a staff member to promote Korean-Taiwanese friendship, forcing her to make a video apology. Reactions to this have been extreme, from (allegedly) influencing the elections in Taiwan in favor of the pro-independence party, to the Chinese government censoring searches for the controversy in order to defend her.

However, things for them seem to be improving as their popularity is continuously growing. So much so that they've been rather controversially called The Nation's Girl Group, the title once held by Girls' Generation. Less controversially, Twice is the best selling current girl group in Kpop, with not only mega-hit singles but also selling more albums than every other girl group in Kpop combined in 2017.

An indirect one - one of Jeongyeon's lines in "TT" is "You're saying I'm ridiculous, that I don't live up to my looks, doesnt cheer me up at all ba-ba-ba-baby!"

In the MV for "Signal", when the girls are following the alien through the futuristic department store, they pass the camera guy who featured in the "Cheer Up" MV. There's also a lady wearing a similar hanbok to the one Dahyun wore in "Cheer Up", and being projected onto the wall is a "Cheer Up" dance video.

The choreography for "Likey" has Twice doing the hand poses for "Cheer Up", "TT", and "Signal" during Momo's part.

Continuity Nod: In "Knock Knock", the group flicks through a book containing drawings of themselves in the outfits they wore in "TT." They also get locked out of their house at midnight in the snow, and it's implied that they died and became ghosts, appearing to the kids in "TT."

Double Agent: In episode one of Twice's Private Life, a Mnet employee posed as a manager for the girls to get real footage of their private lives. At the end, it was revealed that she had been so successful because Tzuyu had secretly been assisting her the whole show.

Tropes E to L

Expy: The group has been called the next Girls' Generation. After all, they are a girl group from a large company with nine members, and have enjoyed immense popularity so far, comparisons were bound to happen.

However, JYP's original intention was to make them into an upgraded and more "natural and friendly" version of their predecessors Wonder Girls and miss A.

Jeongyeon used to be an expy of Amber, as admitted by Park Jin-Young (founder of JYPE).

Sana's "Shy Shy Shy" line in "Cheer Up" became a meme overnight in Korea for allegedly mispronouncing it as "Sha Sha Sha." International netizens thought she pronounced fine, but rolled with it because it gave Sana and the group more attention.

Hair Color Dissonance: Tzuyu in both "Cheer Up" and "TT". She appears to have black hair, but in "Cheer Up" it is actually tinted blue and green, and in "TT" it is purple.

Halloween Episode: The "TT" MV takes place in a haunted house where two children go trick and treating. There, they meet TWICE dressed up in different costumes. The MV ends in a cliffhanger with the children scared.

Hoist by His Own Petard: During the selection stage for 3-way Rock, Paper, Scissors battles to see who would be able to sing in "Encore", JYP was asked who he thinks he can beat. He answers Mina; and not only does he end up selecting her as his opponent (along with Wooyoung from 2PM), she beats both him and Wooyoung in their match.

Hollywood Mirage: Implied at the end of the "Dance the Night Away" MV, when the girls see a cruise ship passing the island in the distance. After a moment of staring, they all decide that they're hallucinating and go back to sleep.

The TT MV has the girls dressed in different costumes from popular franchises. Momo as Tinkerbellnote but with red hair, Jihyo as Elsanote but with dark hair, and Jeongyeon as Pinocchio have the most faithful costume reproductions. Sana dressed as a superhero, Mina as a pirate, Chaeyoung as a mermaid, Dahyun as the Easter Bunny, and Nayeon as the devil don't homage a particular franchise, but they are popular Halloween costumes. Tzuyu's costume has been subject to many different theories note ghost, witch and Morticia Addams among others, but was confirmed in the "making of"- video to be a Vampire costume.

The What Is Love? MV pays homage to more classic films. Nayeon becomes Mia Thermopolis, Jeongyeon and Sana homage the classic pottery scene from Ghost, Mina and Dahyun recreate the headphone scene from the French classic La Boum, Sana and Tzuyu participate in the Twist Contest, Jihyo pines over Jeongyeon in their version of Love Letter, Momo and Tzuyu recreate an iconic dance scene taken from La La Land, Tzuyu and Jeongyeon recreate the fateful meeting of Romeo and Juliet from across the fish tank, and Chaeyoung shows off Mathilda's various disguises for Dahyun's Leon in their homage of The Professional.

Stray Kids in turn often do homage to them. Felix especially loves to dance to their songs.

Hotter and Sexier: The concept for "Fancy" is more mature than their previous singles. Even the MV uses a darker colour scheme.

The Leader: Jihyo is an example of the second type. Despite not being the oldest, she got this position by having trained under JYP for 10 years.

Lethal Chef: Unfortunately, the biggest weakness the girls have is that none of them can cook. Their reality show, "TWICE's Elegant Private Life", showed the girls struggling to make pancakes.

Thankfully, they've gotten better at it over the years, as they've been able to cook potato pancakes and chicken feet.

Tropes M to P

Meaningful Name: The group was given the name of TWICE because they have the power to make you smile twice: once with your eyes, and then with your ears.

Mondegreen: Some Korean netizens criticized Mina's pronunciation in "Likey" and the more vocal ones claimed that she ruined the mood of the song. Her part in question included the words "bujokhandae" (부족한데), but the way she pronounced it sounded a lot like the words like "bujogatnae" (부좆같네), which means "fuck this" in Korean.

Ms. Fanservice: Sana's referred to as the cute-sexy member of the group.

Tzuyu's video is similar, with the difference being that the others are in the back of the bus and are more interested in interacting with the zombies outside while she's not looking at all.

Parts of the "Knock Knock" video show clips of the group chucking pillows with whoever is standing in the middle of the shot. When it's Tzuyu's turn, the other members are too busy fighting amongst themselves to pay attention to her.

Proud Beauty: When asked by a fan who is prettiest without makeup, Nayeon pointed at herself. Her response to Chaeyoung calling her cute was "I know." When asked which member would be most attractive as a man, she referred to herself.

Tropes Q to Z

"Shaggy Dog" Story: In the third episode of Twice TV 4, a tired Momo spent several minutes telling the camera about two mosquito bites she had gotten the night before. Lampooned by Dahyun, who stood behind her progressively becoming more and more visibly bored.

She's Got Legs: Happens all the time with the group. For instance, their outfits for "Like Ooh-Ahh" has everyone except Momo and Tzuyu in shorts or short skirts.

Statuesque Stunner: How Tzuyu is marketed as, even though she doesn't exactly fit TV Tropes standards. She is the tallest of the group and always given a more elegant styling than the rest to compliment her body, which fangirls have admitted they are jealous about.

The Stoic: Tzuyu is prone to being rigid and not expressing emotions easily, mainly on camera. In fact, she didn't cry on camera until June 2016 according to Jungyeon. She doesn't even get scared easily earning admiration from fans.

Stylistic Suck: Done in one of the special "Cheer Up" dance videos, when the dance break takes place in front of a "broken" green screen.

Surprisingly Good Foreign Language: When Twice gave their acceptance speeches at the Golden Disk Awards, Mina and Tzuyu spoke theirs in Japanese and Mandarin, respectively. Sana and Momo are also fluent in Japanese. Justified trope as Mina, Sana, and Momo are Japanese and Tzuyu is Taiwanese.

Team Mom: Nayeon occasionally becomes this to the other members. For instance, during a rehersal for "TT", she saves Momo from falling off the stage; and during the actual performance, she pulls Momo back from the edge.

The Unpronounceable: Tzuyu's name pronunciation has been a topic of debate. Korean doesn't have the same phonemic inventory as Chinese, so they try to approximate 子瑜 note Standard Chinese IPA [d͡z̥ɨy], approximately bands + roses + French u/German ü or for those confused, just input the Chinese characters into google translate and click the speaker button as much as possible with 쯔위 "jjeu-wi" or "Chewy" which is very different from the pronunciation in Mandarin. Her name is alternatively transliterated as Ziyú just to add to fan frustrations on what pronunciation to use. Tzuyu herself embraces Jjeu-wi when she speaks Korean, however she uses the original pronunciation when she speaks Chinese. To settle the differences, fans have given Tzuyu the affectionate nickname "Chewy" based on her Korean pronunciation.

The Un-Reveal: When it was announced that the knocking at the door in "TT" was a hint for their next single, many a fan speculated that Somi would be making a cameo appearance, or be added to the group via introduction in the video. Fast forward a few months, and the person at the door was...an AdorkableJYP.

Touched by Vorlons: In the "Signal" music video, the girls all receive superpowers by coming into contact with the alien love interest. They are all as follows:

For one performance of "Like Ooh-Ahh", the knot holding Momo's shirt together comes undone. Despite Tzuyu and Nayeon's attempts to help fix her shirt, Momo ended up doing most of the dance with one hand holding her shirt in place.

Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Dahyun is deathly afraid of heights, as shown during the group's trip to Switzerland and the Thrill Walk. She was literally almost joined to Sana's hip when they were slowly walking the entire way down.

Momo is also afraid of heights as well. Unlike Dahyun, she didn't even go through the Thrill Walk. She ended up going an alternate route down with some of the managers to meet up with the other members.

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